𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐒 [a rini au]

FORTY-SIX

          It had been two weeks since the infamous Halloween party that tied up some tribulations and created some others. Ricky was lying low, trying his best not to draw attention to himself. For that reason, his days were often spent in his room after classes. On the occasional day that needed some fresh air to work on either random songs or his creative writing project, he would head to that abandoned soccer field he visited at the beginning of the school year. This Thursday night was one of those nights, except he was finishing up an AP Literature essay in the overgrown grass.

          As the boy typed on his computer an analysis of one of The Catcher in the Rye's themes–phoniness–he started to feel a hole in his heart. His fingers paused on the keyboard and he stared blankly at the screen, realizing where that emptiness was stemming from. Ricky would never be able to associate that novel with anyone other than Nini from now on. As he wrote about how Holden Caulfield interprets phoniness in society, he couldn't help but think about how little he had seen the girl since the party.

          They always talked in English class every morning, but their after school plans seemed to diminish. Perhaps it was because boys soccer games were now more frequent and that meant Nini would have to cheer, but Ricky was convinced it was due to her wanting to distance herself from him. Carlos did have a point the other night. It seemed as though ever since Ricky started associating with Nini that these weird webs of lies amongst the elite emerged. As much as it hurt him to not be seeing Nini beyond the classroom as much, he didn't want to push her. While he was only shocked about the secrets he was uncovering, she was losing trust in her best friends, and that was true grief that he needed to validate.

          After wiping the girl from his mind, Ricky zoned in on his analysis. Just as he was about to conclude one of his body paragraphs, he began to hear voices in the distance. Since it was nighttime, Ricky didn't expect anyone to be roaming around the area. So, his head shot up in self-defense as he frantically lowered the brightness on his computer. Ricky didn't have the greatest vision, meaning he wasn't able to make out the visitors approaching the field from the hill before him, but once they were within reasonable distance, the déjà vu almost knocked Ricky on his back.

The two parties were very clearly Charlie Kingston and EJ Caswell, the same people that Ricky spotted in a "suspected drug deal" weeks ago. Seeing them again in the same spot made Ricky remember that theory he constructed and flushed from his brain as soon as he life got suddenly eventful. But, as Charlie stuck his hand out to EJ, the taller brunette pushed it away, causing Ricky to wonder what exactly had changed.

Ricky couldn't make out any words, but he noticed their voices heightening overtime. Eventually, both of their arms were flailing, Charlie still trying to push whatever was in his hand towards EJ. EJ would continue to slap Charlie's hand away, which would result in the East Highland legacy hitting him aggressively in the chest or arm. Then, with one more swat from EJ, the soccer star shoved Charlie to the side and stomped off towards the nearest sidewalk. Ricky heard Charlie curse himself out, since his yell was beyond audible, and then shove whatever he held into his duffel bag and march back over the hill.